What happened in 1973
142 entries recorded for 1973, listed by date. That was 53 years ago.
1973 at a glance
- Years ago
- 53 (as of 2026)
- Century
- 20th century
- Decade
- 1970s
- Generation born
- Generation X
- Entries here
- 142
- Breakdown
- 139 historical events · 3 births
January
- January 3
CBS
CBS announced the sale of the New York Yankees professional baseball team to a group of investors headed by American businessman George Steinbrenner.
- January 4
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in the world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
- January 7
Mark Essex
In his second shooting spree of the week, Mark Essex fatally shoots seven people and wounds five others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, before being shot to death by police officers.
- January 11
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball owners vote in approval of the American League adopting the designated hitter position.
- January 14
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley's (pictured) concert Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite was broadcast live to audiences in Asia and Oceania.
- January 15
Vietnam War
Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
- January 20
Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral, leader of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, is assassinated in Conakry, Guinea.
- January 22
Boeing 707
A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.
- January 22
Apollo 17
The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo Moon landing mission.
- January 22
Supreme Court of the United States
The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade struck down laws restricting abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
- January 22
Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman
In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante Sr..
- January 27
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords officially ends the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
- January 29
EgyptAir Flight 741
EgyptAir Flight 741 crashes into the Kyrenia Mountains in Cyprus, killing 37 people.
February
- February 6
1973 Luhuo earthquake
The Ms 7.6 Luhuo earthquake strikes Sichuan Province, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 2,199 people.
- February 21
Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula
After accidentally straying into the airspace of the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter aircraft, killing 108 of the 113 people on board.
- February 21
Sinai Peninsula
Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.
- February 27
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government.
- February 28
Aeroflot Flight X-167
Aeroflot Flight X-167 crashes during takeoff from Semey Airport, killing 32 people.
March
- March 1
Black September Organization
Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages.
- March 1
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's critically acclaimed album The Dark Side of the Moon was released.
- March 5
Iberia (airline)
An Iberia McDonnell Douglas DC-9 collides in mid-air with a Spantax Convair 990 Coronado over Nantes, France, killing all 68 people aboard the DC-9, including music manager Michael Jeffery.
- March 14
Vietnam War
Vietnam War: After having been captured by North Vietnamese forces five and a half years earlier, U.S. Navy pilot John McCain was released with 108 other prisoners of war.
- March 17
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
- March 17
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
Slava Veder took his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
- March 29
Vietnam War
Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
- March 29
Operation Barrel Roll
Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.
April
- April 1
Project Tiger
Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.
- April 4
Construction of the World Trade Center
A year after the completion of the second of the complex's twin towers, the World Trade Center in New York City was officially dedicated.
- April 4
Lockheed C-141 Starlifter
A C-141, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, flew the last mission of Operation Homecoming to return American prisoners of war from Vietnam.
- April 6
Pioneer 11
Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
- April 6
American League
The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
- April 8
Progress Party (Norway)
The Progress Party was founded in a movie theater in Oslo, Norway.
- April 10
Invicta International Airlines Flight 435
In the deadliest aviation accident in Swiss history, Invicta International Airlines Flight 435 crashed into a hillside near Hochwald, killing 108 people of 145 on board.
- April 11
On the Art of the Cinema
On the Art of the Cinema, a treatise on film propaganda in support of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea written by the future North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, was published.
- April 12
Gravedigger
About 1,700 gravediggers in New York City began a 12-week strike, causing a delay in the burial of roughly 1,400 bodies in the city.
- April 13
Catch a Fire
Catch a Fire, the landmark reggae album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, was released.
- April 17
George Lucas
George Lucas began writing a 13-page film treatment that later formed the basis of Star Wars.
- April 18
Derrick Brooks
Derrick Brooks, American football player
- April 18
Haile Gebrselassie
Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner
- April 19
Socialist Party (Portugal)
The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
- April 20
Julie Powell
Julie Powell, American food writer and memoirist (died 2022)
- April 28
The Dark Side of the Moon
The album The Dark Side of the Moon by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd entered the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, on which it spent a record 942 weeks.
- April 30
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon fires White House Counsel John Dean; other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resign.
May
- May 4
Willis Tower
The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building.
- May 5
Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59.4, an as-yet-unbeaten record.
- May 8
Wounded Knee Occupation
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
- May 11
Aeroflot Flight 6551
Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes in Semey, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kazakhstan), killing all 63 aboard.
- May 11
Pentagon Papers
Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg's charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times are dismissed.
- May 14
Skylab
Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
- May 18
Aeroflot Flight 109
Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker's bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.
- May 31
United States Senate
The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.
- May 31
Indian Airlines Flight 440
Indian Airlines Flight 440 crashes near Palam Airport in Delhi, killing 48.
June
- June 2
Della Aleksander
Della Aleksander co-presented an episode of Open Door on transgender women's lives.
- June 3
Soviet Union
A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.
- June 3
Paris Air Show
At the Paris Air Show, a Tupolev Tu-144 broke up in mid-air, killing all six members of its crew and eight bystanders on the ground.
- June 9
Secretariat (horse)
The racehorse Secretariat, of Meadow Stables (racing colors pictured), won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, achieving the first American Triple Crown victory in a quarter of a century.
- June 20
Sniper
Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
- June 20
Aeroméxico Flight 229
Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.
- June 21
Supreme Court of the United States
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in the landmark case Miller v. California, establishing the Miller test for determining what is obscene material.
- June 21
Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino
The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile.
- June 21
Miller v. California
In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution.
- June 23
Kingston upon Hull
A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
- June 23
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers started Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, and Bill Russell in the infield, beginning a record eight-year run in Major League Baseball for four people designated as starters for those positions.
- June 24
UpStairs Lounge arson attack
The UpStairs Lounge arson attack takes place at a gay bar located on the second floor of the three-story building at 141 Chartres Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Thirty-two people die as a result of fire or smoke inhalation.
- June 28
Northern Ireland Assembly (1973)
Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
- June 30
1973 Concorde eclipse flight
Concorde 001 intercepts the path of a total solar eclipse and follows the moon's shadow, experiencing the longest total eclipse observation.
July
- July 3
David Bowie
British singer David Bowie retired his stage persona Ziggy Stardust in a surprise announcement on the last day of a 17-month tour.
- July 5
Juvénal Habyarimana
Juvénal Habyarimana (pictured) orchestrated a bloodless coup d'état of the Rwandan government and began a totalitarian dictatorship.
- July 10
John Paul Getty III
John Paul Getty III, a grandson of the American oil magnate J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped in Rome.
- July 11
Varig Flight 820
Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
- July 12
National Personnel Records Center fire
A fire destroys the entire sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States.
- July 13
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal: Under questioning by Senate investigators, White House deputy chief of staff Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system (tape recorder pictured) in the Oval Office.
- July 17
Mohammad Zahir Shah
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
- July 21
Lillehammer affair
In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
- July 22
Pan Am Flight 816
Pan Am Flight 816 crashes after takeoff from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete, French Polynesia, killing 78.
- July 25
Soviet Union
Soviet Mars 5 space probe is launched.
- July 28
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attend a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
- July 29
1973 Greek republic referendum
Greeks vote to abolish the monarchy, beginning the first period of the Metapolitefsi.
- July 29
Roger Williamson
Driver Roger Williamson is killed during the Dutch Grand Prix, after a suspected tire failure causes his car to pitch into the barriers at high speed.
- July 31
Delta Air Lines
A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723, crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts, killing 89.
August
- August 2
Summerland disaster
A flash fire killed 50 people at a leisure centre in Douglas, Isle of Man.
- August 5
University of Southwestern Louisiana basketball scandal
Due to an athletics scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association applied the death penalty to the basketball program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
- August 5
Mars 6
Mars 6 is launched from the USSR.
- August 9
Mars 7
Mars 7 is launched from the USSR.
- August 11
1520 Sedgwick Avenue
At the 1520 Sedgwick Avenue apartment building in The Bronx, New York, DJ Kool Herc hosts a house party widely considered to mark the birthplace of hip-hop culture and music. DJ Kool Herc demonstrates a new technique of beat juggling and Coke La Rock performs a new style of vocal
- August 11
DJ Kool Herc
At a party in New York City, Jamaican musician DJ Kool Herc (pictured) began rapping during an extended break, laying the foundation for hip hop music.
- August 13
Aviaco Flight 118
Aviaco Flight 118 crashes on approach to A Coruña Airport in A Coruña, Spain, killing all 85 people on the plane and one other one the ground.
- August 18
Aeroflot Flight A-13
Aeroflot Flight A-13 crashes after takeoff from Baku-Bina International Airport in Azerbaijan, killing 56 people and injuring eight.
- August 22
National Congress of Chile
The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands that he resign or else be unseated through force and new elections.
- August 23
Norrmalmstorg robbery
A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".
- August 28
Norrmalmstorg robbery
Swedish police used gas bombs to end a seven-day hostage situation in Stockholm; the hostages had bonded with their captors during the incident, leading to the term Stockholm syndrome.
September
- September 1
Rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman
A 76-hour multinational rescue effort off the coast of Ireland resulted in the deepest sub rescue in history.
- September 1
Celtic Sea
A 76-hour multinational rescue effort in the Celtic Sea results in the rescue of Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman.
- September 8
World Airways Flight 802
World Airways Flight 802 crashes into Mount Dutton in King Cove, Alaska, killing six people.
- September 20
Jim Croce
Singer Jim Croce, songwriter and musician Maury Muehleisen and four others die when their light aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana.
- September 20
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, in an internationally televised tennis match dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes".
- September 23
September 1973 Argentine presidential election
Argentine general election: Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina.
- September 24
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau declares its independence from Portugal.
- September 27
Texas International Airlines Flight 655
Texas International Airlines Flight 655 crashes into the Black Fork Mountain Wilderness near Mena, Arkansas, killing all 11 people on board.
- September 28
ITT Inc.
The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT's alleged involvement in the coup d'état in Chile.
October
- October 6
Egyptian Armed Forces
The Egyptian Armed Forces crossed the Suez Canal (pictured) to attack occupying Israeli forces at the Bar Lev Line in the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
- October 6
Operation Badr (1973)
Egypt and Syria launch coordinated attacks against Israel, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
- October 8
Spyros Markezinis
Spyros Markezinis begins his 48-day term as prime minister in an abortive attempt to lead Greece to parliamentary rule.
- October 8
Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War: Israel loses more than 150 tanks in a failed attack on Egyptian-occupied positions.
- October 10
Spiro Agnew
U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew resigned after being charged with tax evasion.
- October 11
Typhoon Nora (1973)
Typhoon Nora, the fourth-most intense tropical cyclone on record, dissipated after killing 40 people and leaving more than a million homeless across Taiwan and the Philippines.
- October 14
1973 Thai popular uprising
In the Thammasat student uprising, over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the military government. Seventy-seven are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
- October 16
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- October 16
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize would be jointly awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ, sparking international controversy.
- October 17
Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War: Egyptian forces retreated from the Battle of the Chinese Farm, allowing Israeli forces to build their first bridge across the Suez Canal.
- October 19
Nixon White House tapes
President Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
- October 20
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal: Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned after refusing to obey President Richard Nixon's order to have Archibald Cox fired.
- October 20
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction.
- October 21
Fred Dryer
Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
- October 25
United Nations Security Council Resolution 339
Egypt and Israel accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 339.
- October 30
Bosphorus Bridge
The Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus for the second time.
- October 31
Provisional Irish Republican Army
Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin aboard a hijacked helicopter that landed in the prison's exercise yard.
November
- November 1
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
- November 1
Mysore
The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu.
- November 2
Aeroflot Flight 19
Aeroflot Flight 19 is hijacked and diverted to Vnukovo International Airport, where the aircraft is stormed by authorities.
- November 3
Mariner program
Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury. On March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet.
- November 4
1973 oil crisis
The Netherlands experiences the first car-free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists and roller skaters.
- November 8
John Paul Getty III
The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper outlet along with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.
- November 12
Last of the Summer Wine
The first episode of Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running television sitcom in history, premiered on the BBC.
- November 16
Richard Nixon
U.S. president Richard Nixon signed an act authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to transport oil from the Beaufort Sea to the Gulf of Alaska.
- November 16
Skylab
Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission.
- November 17
Athens Polytechnic uprising
The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
- November 17
Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
- November 24
Autobahn
A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasts only four months.
- November 25
Georgios Papadopoulos
Georgios Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
December
- December 6
Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387–35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92–3.)
- December 9
Sunningdale Agreement
British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.
- December 15
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
- December 15
John Paul Getty III
John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
- December 16
Aeroflot Flight 2022
Aeroflot Flight 2022 crashes in the Soviet Union's (now Russia) Volokolamsky District, killing all 51 aboard, including four Lithuanian doctors.
- December 17
1973 Rome airport attacks and hijacking
Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.
- December 18
Soyuz programme
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
- December 20
Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco
Assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco: A car bomb planted by ETA in Madrid kills three people, including the Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco.
- December 21
Geneva Conference (1973)
The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.
- December 24
District of Columbia Home Rule Act
District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
- December 24
United States Congress
The U.S. Congress granted home rule to Washington, D.C., allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and a city council.
- December 28
United States
The United States Endangered Species Act is signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
Questions about 1973
What happened in 1973?
This site records 142 entries for 1973, including CBS on January 3. They are listed below by date.
How long ago was 1973?
53 years ago, counting from 2026. Anyone born in 1973 turns 53 this year.
Which century is 1973 in?
1973 falls in the 20th century, in the 1970s.
Which generation was born in 1973?
Generation X (1965–1980). The latch-key generation; first to grow up with personal computers.
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